Resources you can use: Ancient Near East: Cradle of Civilization Sumerian Archit

Resources you can use:
Ancient Near East: Cradle of Civilization
Sumerian Architecture: White Temple and Ziggurat at Uruk
Sumerian Sculpture: Warka Vase
Sumerian Sculpture: Standing Male Worshipper (Tell Asmar) (Video, Smarthistory)
Sumerian Art: Standard of Ur and other objects from the Royal Graves
Akkadian Art: An Introduction
Akkadian Sculpture: Victory Stele of Naram-Sin
Neo-Sumerian Architecture: The Ziggurat of Ur (Text, Smarthistory)
Neo-Sumerian Sculptue: Seated Gudea with a Temple Plan (Video, Smarthistory)
Babylonia: An Introduction
Babylonian Sculpture: Law Stele of King Hammurabi
Babylonian Architecture: The Ishar Gate and Neo-Babylonian Art and Architecture
Assyria: An Introduction
Assyrian Sculpture
Assyrian Sculpture: Lammasu from the Palace of Sargon II
Ancient Persia: An Introduction
Persepolis: The Audience Hall of Darius and Xerxes
Ancient Mesopotamian Art is a broad group that spans thousands of years, beginning with the development of Sumerian civilization around 3200 BCE, all the way to the art of the Persian Empire during the 5th century BCE.
During that time, many empires rose and fell in the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (Ancient Mesopotamia). The Sumerians, Akkaddians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians were civilizations all dominated this geography at different periods of antiquity, and each used art to express and legitimize the values of their empires.
DIRECTIONS:
This assignment asks you to select and identify a work of art from Ancient Mesopotamia. Please label the work of art in the traditional art historical format and describe it in 250+ words:
1. Artist (if the artist is known. If the artist is unknown, say “anonymous aritst”)
2. Title
3. Date
4. Material
5. Current Location (either in a museum, or a geographical place)
6. Please list which Mesopotamian Civilization (Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, etc.) produced the work of art.
7. Provide a short description (in your own words) of the visual elements of the artwork.
HERE IS AN EXAMPLE OF MINE:
1. Anonymous Artist
2. Dying Lioness
3. 650 BCE
4. Limestone
5. The British Museum (originally located in the Palace of Ashurbanipal, Nineveh, Iraq)
6. Neo-Assyrian Civilization (circa 670-630 BCE)
7. Description:
The Dying Lioness is a highly naturalistic bas-relief sculpture that was found during the excavations on the Palace of Ashurbanipal, in Nineveh, Iraq. This sculpture depicts a lioness who has been shot through with arrows during a royal hunt, and who is dying with great pain and pathos. Lions were often kept captive on the palace grounds, and hunted by the king in managed game enclosures that ensured the king’s victory. This was meant to prove the king’s great bravery, despite the fact it was in no way a fair fight. Here the artist has depicted the muscles and anatomies of the lioness with great care and detail, providing a highly naturalistic rendition of the animals form. This naturalism allows us to feel the great strain and pain the lioness experiences as she struggles to take another step, perhaps her last. As the lioness opens her mouth to let out a cry of anguish, the viewer is left to question the need for humans (in this case a powerful man) to burnish their power and dominance by the hunting of animals merely for sport (as opposed to actual sustenance), especially when done so on game preserves that set up an unfair fight. Ultimately my heart is broken when I view this sculpture, and the artist has been successful soliciting emotion through the aesthetic portrayal of the hunt. The Dying Lioness proves that not all ancient Mesopotamian sculpture was “schematic”, “decorative”, and “abstract”, and that indeed there are high degrees of naturalism and emotion in the bas-relief sculptures from the Palace of Ashurbanipal.